The Skills You Need To Get Out Of Your Rut And Land A Job

Here's The Skills You Need To Get Out Of A Rut And Land Your Dream Job

Long Story Short

Researchers at Ohio State University discovered that people who use skills which are normally taught as part of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for depression, have a better chance of landing a job.

Long Story

Skills taught as part of cognitive therapy for depression can help people land jobs.

Researchers at Ohio State University followed 75 unemployed people between the ages of 20 and 67. After filling out questionnaires, researchers found that a third of participants had symptoms of moderate to serious depression. Symptoms included a negative cognitive style, avoidance and brooding.

The rest of the group showed mildly depressive symptoms, or none at all.

The researchers also measured how often all participants relied on cognitive behavioural skills to stop their negative thoughts.

One example of a cognitive behavioural skill is to fight back negative thoughts with positive ones. Another involves planning fun activities to crush a destructive mood. Cognitive behaviour therapy also teaches depressed individuals how to break huge tasks into smaller ones, to encourage progress.

The authors report none of the participants had undergone therapy to learn these skills but participants who implemented them naturally, showed better odds of receiving a job offer and landing a job.

Study co-author Daniel Strunk, an associate professor at Ohio State University says, “Some people just naturally catch themselves when they have negative thoughts and refocus on the positive and use other CB skills. These are the people who were more likely to find a job.”

Three months after filling out initial questionnaires, the study, which just appeared in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, required participants to report on their job search results.

The study concludes, without quantifying results, that participants who relied on cognitive behavioural skills to boost positivity, were more likely to have received job offers or found work.

Recent Gallup numbers suggests the longer people are out of work, the more their psychological well-being takes a beating. One in five Americans out of work for a year or more, for example, are grappling with depression issues.

Strunk explains persistence and positivism increase chances of success, “Rejection is so much a part of the process of job seeking. Using cognitive behavioural skills are an important way one can deal with that.”

It’s time to get the word out so that cognitive behavioural skills can ease a major social problem, by helping to lift discouraged jobless individuals before they hit rock bottom.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Should cognitive behavioural skills be taught in secondary school?

Disrupt Your Feed: So people who are able to ease their own depression are also better at landing jobs? Doesn't sound very groundbreaking.

Drop This Fact: Employees diagnosed with depression miss about 68 million more days per year than those who have not, costing employers about $23 (£16) billion annually.